


Good Things in Pumpkin Patches

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A pumpkin patch of fluff, Bae is adorable, Belle is a picky pumpkin picker, Floof Family Feels, Fluff, Halloween, Happy Halloween! No scares!, Pumpkins, We have us a spinner!Gold here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 18:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12563716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: Belle is very particular about the pumpkin she carves for Halloween each year. Most of Storybrooke gets their pumpkins at the Autumn Carnival, but that's not what Belle found in the patch this year. Or rather, who.





	Good Things in Pumpkin Patches

**Author's Note:**

> I had to drop out of the Rumbelle Revelry for two reasons: My hands were weak and I couldn't risk a relapse of carpal tunnel by pushing them, and that's what I was going to have to do because I couldn't get a coherent story together.
> 
> Last year I wrote The Mysterious Incident of Shadowhearst Manor, which is a multichapter beast with ghosts and plot and haunted houses and all that good stuff, but apparently all I could produce this year was fluffy Floof Family fluff in a pumpkin patch. Happy Halloween all the same!

"It's disgusting."

"Oh come on Ruby-"

"I hate the smell of pumpkin Belle! It's genetic, why don't you think Granny even sells pumpkin pie in the diner? No. Not doing it."

Ruby Lucas was a...bit dramatic at times, but she was still a good friend. Belle rolled her eyes and kept tugging Ruby along to the pumpkin patch, wearing a practical pair of rubber boots instead of her beloved heels for a change. It had rained off and on all week, the ground was damp and muddy, but there was hope of things drying out before Halloween night next week.

"You know, you don't have to _carve_ the pumpkins," Belle said patiently, getting them in the short line. The man who you paid for your pumpkins was waiting until all the kindergarteners were rounded up before he let anyone else in. A sound idea since it was getting to be late in the afternoon, and the children were either tired and cranky or getting bored and mischevious. Two little boys were hopping over increasingly large pumpkins like a game before they were herded away to form a line. "You could always just paint it, or even leave it plain and put a hat on it."

Ruby sighed, but gave the matter some thought. "Well...maybe."

"They last longer if you don't cut into them. Maybe you could write something that'll carry over to November? Like 'Happy Harvest' or something?"

"Maaaybe...fine. If nothing else, I'll just stab some knives in there and make it a murdered pumpkin."

What _did_ she have against pumpkins? Belle shook her head with a smile, watching the kindergarten chaperones coax their charges out of the pumpkin patch at last. The supervising employee at the Autumn Carnival at the entrance waved in the next customers, which were just Ruby and Belle since the other people in line had decided to come back while the children were still being gathered up, so that left the whole pumpkin patch just to the two of them.

The harvested pumpkins had been arranged in rows, set among some left on the vine to create the illusion of a pumpkin patch that grew in tidy rows rather than however Mother Nature decided. Ruby picked the first mostly-round medium pumpkin she saw, but Belle was being a bit more choosy.

She had high standards for a pumpkin. It had to be orange, with a good, sturdy stem, and as smooth as possible. Not to mention steady. It was a time-consuming process, but she believed it was worth it. But this one was too small, too squat, too narrow, too unsteady, that one had a dent in the back, this one had weird warts on it, that one had mold or a spiderweb on it, and either of those options were a no-go.

"You're just going to mutilate the thing, what's so hard about picking a murder victim?" Ruby asked, the man sitting up front whipping around to look at them because she'd spoken a bit loudly. "C'mon, this thing is heavy!"

"I just want to pick the right one. Why don't you give your pumpkin to Anton to hold on to?"

Ruby did that, and Belle walked to the very end of the medium pumpkin row, looking at her choices there. She was standing between a row of mediums and a row of larges, contemplating a mostly round, just-right pumpkin and checking it for bugs or rot or defects, when she heard a tiny squeak behind her.

"Where'd ev'rybody go?"

Uh-oh.

A small kindergartener, no older than five, sat up and rubbed his eyes, debris sticking to his dark curly hair and little coat. Curled up on the ground, he was almost smaller than the great big pumpkin he was dozing behind, and Belle supposed that's why he'd been left behind. Oh. The poor boy had been left behind. Oh dear.

When he blinked owlishly at Belle, she found herself smiling awkwardly. "Um, hello."

"Hi."

"Um, were you here on a field trip, ah..." Belle didn't know this child's name. She'd heard there was a new boy in kindergarten, Mrs. la Rue mentioned to expect an extra face at the next story time. This must have been him.

The boy yawned. "'m Neal, who're you?"

Neal. Right. "My name is Belle French. I think I'd better get you back to the bus now, okay? Your class is already going."

Oh, that woke the poor dear up. He scrambled to his feet, and Belle steadied him because he nearly smacked into the big pumpkin. "No, no, no!" he started to cry. "I can't get leaved!"

"It's okay, sweetheart, it's okay," Belle soothed, squeezing his hands. "There's nothing to be scared of, I'll call the teacher and we'll let her know where you are, and you won't be left behind, okay?"

Neal nodded, sniffling. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"Holy cr-Cow," Ruby blurted out. "What kind of pumpkin is that Belle?"

Anton got up from his spot outside the fence ringing the pumpkin area, his big hand hovering nervously. "Uh-oh. Uh, do I need to call somebody?"

"No, no it's all right," Belle waved them off, fumbling for her phone and dialing Mrs. la Rue's number. "I've got it, thank you. Hello?"

 _"Belle?"_ The teacher answered. She was a sweet, older single mother with a son in the fifth grade now, who almost always managed to be calm even with a hint of worry in her voice. _"I'm afraid I'll have to call you back dear, one of my students is missing-"_

"Neal?"

_"Why, yes, how did you know?"_

"We're right here in the pumpkin patch with him." Belle bit her lip, looking at Neal's small, concerned face. "Would you like to say something Neal?"

"Don't leave me please!" Neal said loudly, as if that would make it easier to reach his teacher. At least he looked less like he was going to cry now, that had to be a good thing.

_"Right. I'll send one of the chaperones to talk him, Alexandra's mother, would you wait right there?"_

"Absolutely, Mrs. la Rue, we'll be right here. Goodbye."

_"Oh, bye, and thank you dear."_

Belle hung up, smiling at Neal. "Do you know Mrs. Herman, Alexandra's mum? She's coming to take you back to the class right now, and we're going to wait with you."

Ruby squatted down by Belle, squinting at Neal. He kept a hold of one of Belle's hands, but blinked at the taller brunette woman curiously.

"I think I know you," Ruby hummed. "Pecan pie and chocolate ice cream, right? You're Mr. Gold's kid."

Neal smiled shyly. "That's my papa."

"I knew it! Well, I remember you at least. Pecan pie and chocolate ice cream, you're a visionary!" Ruby turned to Belle, apparently remembering to keep her in the loop now. "Gold is Marco's new employee, y'know, since August went off to college last year he's been struggling to keep up with orders? They're pretty new in town, I don't think every knows about them yet."

"Oh. Well," Belle gave Neal's hand a gentle shake. "My name is Belle French, and I'm the librarian. This is my friend Ruby Lucas, she works at the diner."

"With your grammy?"

"Granny," Ruby nodded. "That's her."

"She cooks nice."

"Thank you, I'll tell her that. Maybe she'll give you free whipped cream on your cocoa next time you come in."

Lacking anything better to talk about, Belle asked Neal if he would help her pick out a pumpkin to carve. The kindergarteners had been given a large sticker each, and been told to choose from the small or medium pumpkins by claiming their own with a sticker. They'd be brought to the school for parents to pick up later, and Neal showed them his small pumpkin he could _almost_ carry all by himself. He helped them pick a slightly larger one though that was almost perfectly round, with a long stem still attached, which Belle's research indicated was a must in choosing pumpkins.

Ashely showed up to take Neal back to the other children, and Belle and Ruby waved goodbye.

He was a good boy.

* * *

Halloween arrived within the week, and with Belle's classically carved jack o' lantern on the front step of the library and the door propped open, children of all ages came at went in a wide assortment of costumes. Belle had bought a headband with fluffy black ears attached and used eyeliner to paint whiskers and smudge a nose on her face, pairing it with a simply black dress and heels already in her closet. Now she was a cat. Meow.

Ruby had gone just a little racier, with a cape longer than the miniskirt of her Little Red Riding Hood costume despite the constant shake of the head Granny gave her. She was busy chatting up Victor Whale, who, as he was still dressed in his white coat from coming straight off a hospital shift, quipped that he was a dentist rather than a doctor for the evening, while Belle helped herself to a pumpkin-shaped gingerbread cookie--

"It's the pumpkin lady Papa!"

A small weight collided with Belle's leg, almost toppling her if it weren't for a warm hand gently catching her arm at the last moment. She noticed it, but the little Sorcerer's Apprentice beaming up at her captured her full attention.

"Hello Neal!" Belle giggled. "It's nice to see you again. What a lovely costume!"

Neal jumped back, so that Belle could see the costume properly. He wore a red robe and brown shoes, and a blue starry hat. Definitely The Sorcerer's Apprentice. "Thank you!" he chirped. "My papa made it all by himself, Papa, this is the pumpkin lady! She's not really a cat but she is pretty."

Toddlers were...adorable, unfiltered creatures, weren't they?

"She's not a cat?" Mr. Gold humored his son with a fond smile, tweaking the hat that always seemed in danger of falling of Neal's head. "Well she could have fooled me. Ah, I meant to thank you earlier for helping my son, but I've had a rather busy week. So...thank you."

"It was no trouble at all, I was happy to help. And Neal helped me pick out my pumpkin, so I would say we're even."

Neal scampered off to join some kindergartener friends he spotted sitting at the two tables in the children's area, leaving just the adults there. Belle noticed that Mr. Gold had the same deep brown eyes as Neal, but his longish hair was straighter, and a lighter shade of brown. He was an older father, maybe in his forties, with crinkles at the corners of his dark eyes and a crooked smile. He wasn't in costume like some parents, he was just simply dressed in well-worn jeans and a jacket, a cane supporting him on his right side.

Belle realized she was staring when he turned back to her and blinked. Oops.

"Um," she held her hand out to him. "I'm Belle, by the way, Belle French. I'm the librarian here."

"Ah. Royce Gold," he shook her hand, gently, like he was half-scared he'd break it. "Pleased to meet you Miss French."

"You can call me Belle, everyone does. Um, so how are you enjoying Storybrooke so far?"

"It's very nice, quiet," he nodded. "I'm glad for it, honestly, Neal seems to like it better too. He'd gotten lost once and-Well he just didn't like all the noise and crowds I suppose. Your town is very lovely though. He's filled half a notebook with drawings of the park and the school and your clocktower."

Storybrooke's one library was, coincidentally, underneath the clocktower. Whether one was built before the other, Belle couldn't say, but it was very pretty all the same. She was lucky it didn't chime though...she lived in an apartment just above the library, that could get noisy. "I like it too. Was he alright when he got home?"

"A bit shaken, but he bounced back once I showed him the hat." Mr. Gold smiled, gesturing over to where Neal was letting little Emma Nolan try on his sorcerer's hat while he tried on her cowboy hat.

The Nolans, fourth grade teacher Mary-Margaret and her husband David, were taking Emma trick-or-treating soon. Neal begged to go with them, so Royce Gold went with them since he didn't know the Nolans very well yet, and her wasn't too familiar with Storybrooke either. He wished Belle a good night, and she did the same, privately thinking that as good a boy as Neal was, his father was a good man too.

* * *

Originally, Belle was just friends with Royce, thinking he had a wife somewhere. She found out shortly that there was no Mrs. Gold, at least, not one in the picture. Neal's mother was unhappy with her lot as a wife and mother, but also complained whenever Royce suggested she find a job to occupy her time. She turned to drinking a bit much, and when that wasn't enough, one day she took Neal to the park.

This was why Neal had been so frightened by the idea of being left behind in the pumpkin patch: His mother had left him at the playground for an hour. This was something she had started doing to make time with her new boyfriend, Royce had found, relying on the parents of children he played with to mind him.

Only on this day, a year before their arrival in Storybrooke, it began to rain. All of the other parents gathered up their children and left, leaving Neal lost in the park scrambling for cover. A mother of two found him sheltering under an awning and took him to the police, sitting with him until two hours later when Royce showed up.

He was a soft, gentle man, but the reveal of his wife's neglect had him filing for a divorce. The incident was enough to prevent Milah from gaining custody of Neal, even before she signed off her parental rights and flounced off with her boyfriend for parts unknown. And Belle was glad. That _dreadful_ woman didn't deserve the family she'd abandoned.

After that...it was difficult to say when their first date was. Neal ate at the diner with them often, they went for ice cream and on walks through the park as a trio often enough. Sometimes Belle ended up sitting by Royce at children's birthday parties, and he'd been her plus-one to the now Ariel Benson-Prince's wedding. She definitely kissed him for the first time one afternoon when he was helping her take down Christmas decorations after New Year's, a dried sprig of mistletoe going from a joke to an opening Belle happily took.

The first _official_ date where she put on makeup and a nice dress and he wore a tie was shortly afterwards, and the first time Neal saw her kiss his father's cheek he'd made a face and said: "Emma says you catch cooties doing that, Papa, you an' Belle are gonna be like her parents!"

They had his approval though, and that year Belle and Royce walked a six-year-old Darth Vader trick-or-treating, hand-in-hand.

* * *

 When Neal was eight, and begging to ride later on the Ferris wheel at the Autumn Carnival after they picked out their pumpkins this year, Belle found something else unexpected in the pumpkin patch.

Still rather choosy about her pumpkins, she was scrutinizing one when Royce called her over. The pumpkin he was kneeling by was perfectly shaped pumpkin Belle knelt down to inspect, deeming it perhaps just a tad too large than what she would have normally picked, and it took her an embarrassingly long moment to realize Royce hadn't called her here to show her.

The ring was small, but so was Belle's hand, and simple, but that was more to her taste anyway. It fit nicely on her finger. And her arms fit nicely around Royce's neck. For all it was public, as Royce apparently had been carrying the ring around for almost two months waiting on the right moment, it was still private since nobody but Neal really saw it, and Belle felt like the world had shrunk to just the three of them. In a good way. The best way.

She didn't even mind that for years afterwards, Neal and Royce teased her for not noticing her husband, with his bad leg, had gone through the trouble of getting down on one knee to propose to her, thinking instead he wanted to show her a damned pumpkin.

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously: If you want a scary story produced by myself, please read last year's Halloween story, before my muse went off to war. I'm really proud of it and I want to do a follow-up someday, so drop some suggestions if you have them.
> 
> *link*-- **http://archiveofourown.org/works/8283205**


End file.
